Jessica Valenti (born November 1, 1978) is an American blogger and feminist writer, founder of the Feministing blog in 2004. She is the author or co-author of four books on women's issues, including Full Frontal Feminism (2007),[a]He's a Stud, She's a Slut (2008),[b] and The Purity Myth (2009).[c]

Valenti founded Feministing in 2004,[γ] while she was working at the National Organization for Women's legal defense fund (now Legal Momentum)[γ] Homa Khaleeli writes in The Guardian's top 100 women that the site shifted the feminist movement online, triggering the creation of blogs and discussion groups, creating a heyday for feminism just as its death was being announced, as Khaleeli puts it. She writes that Valenti "felt the full force of being a pioneer," her involvement with the site attracting online abuse, even threats of rape and death.[4]

University of Wisconsin–Madison law professor Ann Althouse criticized Feministing in 2006 for its sometimes sexualized content. Erin Matson of the National Organization for Women's Young Feminist Task Force told The Huffington Post the controversy was "a rehashing of a very old debate within the feminist community: is public sexuality empowering or harmful to women?"[5][6]

Valenti decided to leave the site in February 2011, saying she wanted it to remain a place for younger feminists.[7] Since then, she has been a contributing author to Courtney E. Martin and J. Courtney Sullivan's books Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists (2010),[d] Melody Berger's We Don't Need Another Wave (2008)[e] and Diane Mapes's Single State of the Union (2007).[f]

In 2008 she co-authored a Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape with Jaclyn Friedman[g] and in 2012 she published Why Have Kids.[h]